What is physical fitness?
A: Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and the ability to
perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities.
Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper
what?
A: Nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical
exercise, and sufficient rest along
with a formal recovery plan.
Before the Industrial Revolution how was fitness
defined?
A: As the capacity to carry out the day's activities without undue fatigue
or lethargy.
However, with automation and changes in lifestyles,
physical fitness is now considered what?
A: A measure of the body's ability to function efficiently and effectively
in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic
diseases, improve immune system and to meet emergency situations.
How is fitness defined?
A: As the quality or state of being fit and healthy.
Around 1950, perhaps consistent with the Industrial
Revolution and the treatise of World War II, the term "fitness" increased in
western vernacular by a factor of what?
A: Ten.
A well-rounded fitness program improves a person in all
aspects of fitness compared to practicing what?
A: Only one, such as only cardio/respiratory or only weight training.
A comprehensive fitness program tailored to an
individual typically focuses on what?
A: One or more specific skills, and on age or health-related needs such as
bone health.
Many sources also cite mental, social, and emotional
health as what?
A: An important part of overall fitness.
This is often presented in textbooks as a triangle made
up of three points, which represent what?
A: Physical, emotional, and mental fitness.
Physical fitness has been shown to have benefits in
preventing what?
A: Ill health and assisting recovery from injury or illness.
Along with the physical health benefits of fitness, it
has also been shown to have a positive impact on what?
A: Mental health as well by assisting in treating anxiety and depression.
Physical fitness can also prevent or treat many other
chronic health conditions brought on by what?
A: An unhealthy lifestyle or aging.
Working out can also help some people sleep better by
doing what?
A: By building up sleeping pressure and possibly alleviate some mood
disorders in certain individuals.
Developing research has demonstrated that many of the
benefits of exercise are mediated through the role of skeletal muscle as
what?
A: An endocrine organ.
That is, contracting muscles release multiple
substances known as myokines, which do what?
A: Promote the growth of new tissue, tissue repair, and various
anti-inflammatory functions, which in turn reduce the risk of developing
various inflammatory diseases.
The 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
were released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide
what?
A: Science-based guidance for people ages 3 years and older to improve their
health by participating in regular physical activity.
These guidelines recommend that all adults should so
what?
A: Move more and sit less throughout the day to improve health-related
quality of life including mental, emotional, and physical health.
For substantial health benefits, adults should perform
at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes per
week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or what?
A: An equivalent combination of both spread throughout the week.
The recommendation for physical activity to occur in
bouts of at least 10 minutes has been what?
A: Eliminated, as new research suggests that bouts of any length contribute
to the health benefits linked to the accumulated volume of physical
activity.
Additional health benefits may be achieved by engaging
in what?
A: More than 300 minutes (5 hours) of moderate-intensity physical activity
per week.
Adults should also do what?
A: Muscle-strengthening activities that are of moderate or greater intensity
and involve all major muscle groups on two or more days a week, as these
activities provide additional health benefits.
Guidelines in the United Kingdom released in July
2011
include what?
A: The intensity at which a person exercises is key, and light activity such
as strolling and house work is unlikely to have much positive impact on the
health of most people.
For aerobic exercise to be beneficial, it must do what?
A: Raise the heart rate and cause perspiration.
Sedentary time (time spent not standing, such as when
on a chair or in bed) is bad for a person's health, and no amount of
exercise can do what?
A: Negate the effects of sitting for too long.
These guidelines are now much more in line with those
used in the U.S., which also includes recommendations for what?
A: Muscle-building and bone-strengthening activities such as lifting weights
and yoga.
Playing sports such as lawn tennis is a common way to
do what?
A: Maintain and improve physical fitness.
